United States | German-Americans

The silent minority

America’s largest ethnic group has assimilated so well that people barely notice it

|KOHLER, WISCONSIN

ON A snow-covered bluff overlooking the Sheboygan river stands the Waelderhaus, a faithful reproduction of an Austrian chalet. It was built by the Kohler family of Wisconsin in the 1920s as a tribute to the homeland of their father, John Michael Kohler, who had immigrated to America in 1854 at the age of ten.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The silent minority”

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